{"id":668,"date":"2025-04-21T12:02:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T12:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/?p=668"},"modified":"2025-04-14T12:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T12:05:36","slug":"ramble-issue-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/?p=668","title":{"rendered":"Ramble \u2013 Issue #2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>UX Debt: The Silent Killer of Good Products<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/creators.spotify.com\/pod\/show\/aaron-usiskin\/episodes\/UX-Debt-The-Silent-Killer-of-Products-e31gvmv\">Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hey, it\u2019s Aaron.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, I want to talk about something you can\u2019t see on a roadmap or a sprint board \u2014 but it\u2019s everywhere: UX debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not tech debt. UX debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pile of band-aid decisions, clunky workarounds, unclear labels, inconsistent patterns, skipped research, and duct-taped flows that add up over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We justify them in the moment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll fix that in Phase 2.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis just needs to work for launch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUsers will figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But guess what? Phase 2 rarely comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And by the time we notice the debt, users are already bouncing or support tickets are stacking up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What UX Debt Actually Looks Like<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A signup flow that doesn\u2019t match the rest of the product<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Five different button styles for \u201cSubmit\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Microcopy that contradicts itself<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No alt text, no hierarchy, no empathy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A redesign on top of a redesign on top of a redesign<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sound familiar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UX debt grows quietly \u2014 but it erodes trust, creates friction, and makes even the best products feel disjointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What To Do About It<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Start a UX Debt Log<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You track bugs. Why not track UX messes? Keep a living doc or Notion board with screenshots, what\u2019s broken, and impact.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Audit with Empathy<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Revisit user journeys with fresh eyes. Where are people getting stuck? What feels inconsistent? Where do users drop off?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Get Leadership on Board<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Frame UX debt in business terms: lost conversions, more support tickets, slower onboarding, higher churn.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Links Worth a Click<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/ux-debt\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">UX Debt: How to Identify, Prioritize, and Resolve<\/a>\u201d \u2013 Nielsen Norman Group<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/uxdesign.cc\/measuring-design-debt-336c79dfbcf9\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Measuring UX Debt<\/a>\u201d \u2013 UX Collective<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.airtable.com\/universe\/exp43AgFa5y6ol2YX\/personal-budget-and-debt-tracker-monthly\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Airtable UX Debt Tracker Template<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.darkpatterns.org\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dark Patterns or Just Debt? \u2013 DarkPatterns.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Quote of the Week<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUX debt is like rust. You don\u2019t notice it until something breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Probably Me, During a Design Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Your Turn<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>What kind of UX debt are you dealing with? Have you ever fought to clean it up \u2014 or been the one who had to ship it anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hit reply. Let\u2019s ramble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See you next week,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Aaron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UX Debt: The Silent Killer of Good Products Spotify Hey, it\u2019s Aaron. This week, I want to talk about something you can\u2019t see on a roadmap or a sprint board \u2014 but it\u2019s everywhere: UX debt. Not tech debt. UX debt. The pile of band-aid decisions, clunky workarounds, unclear labels, inconsistent patterns, skipped research, and<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"more-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link button\" href=\"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/?p=668\">Continue reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,10,6,7,4],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ux","tag-uxdesign","tag-uxresearch","tag-uxstrategy","tag-uxui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhdux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}